Isiah Thomas has had a fascination with him since the days of Toronto and believes Carter is the missing piece to the New York puzzle, other than himself.

The Nets thoughts on Carter have definitely changed this year, as he went from hero to zero; injury or not. Now with Jason Kidd out of the picture, his future looks even grimmer as Kiki and Thorn look to gut for the future.

The risk is high, but also could be quite rewarding. Thorn received Carter for two Monopoly pieces and 101 Spiderman chewing gum wrappers and watched him produce for two years.

Of course Thorn made the mistake of signing him to the bigger contract, but also could be the hero and snake out a draft pick or two from New York, whose picks look more promising than a powerful Dallas team.

Why do this deal rather than get Jermaine and try harder?

Cap space.

Entering the 2009 season we will only have Carter’s and Richard Jefferson’s contract to worry about. The young guns have player options the Nets can pick up for cheap while the trade chunks Thorn picked up will have expired.

Carter is earning $13 million this season that jumps up one million each year until his team option in 2011. With that much room available, names like Ben Gordon, Josh Smith and Monta Ellis are definitely not out of the picture if we can market New Jersey and the Brooklyn Project perfectly.

Risk-taking is what the NBA is about. By the looks from the New York side from towel smacking to water splashing, it is very unlikely to be turned around by Vince Carter.